Beetroot Pakoras with Yogurt Chilli Dip
Hands up if you love pakoras?
There is a van in a town near me that opens up every weekend and makes pakoras. Gluten free, vegan, delicious pakoras. And oh, the smells that come from it. The scent of sweet spices and deep frying and crispy flavoursome snacks.
If there was just one way to make veggies extra appealing, this would be it. They come out crispy and sweet and spiced but not spicy and just plain yummy.
I am terrified of deep frying. Seriously, I hate it. So my recipe uses more of a shallow fry method. And instead of using rancid vegetable oils, my recipe uses neutral olive oil or odourless coconut oil to get these beauties cooked through.
When we were planning out our veg box in the garden this year, my daughter decided she wanted to grow beetroot. She loves them, but it certainly didn’t hurt that they are insanely easy to grow! We’ve ended up with a load of the stuff and I’m having fun coming up with ways to use it.
These are my current favourite. They make an excellent snack or lunchbox addition – not to mention they are a perfect Halloween food given their “bloody” colour and web-like appearance!
A delicious crispy sweet 'n' spicy snack that is perfect for a fall snack or lunchbox addition, as well as being great for Halloween with its web-like appearance and "blood" red colour. Gluten free, sugar free, vegan.
- 4 small raw beetroot (or 2-3 large ones), grated
- 200 g (1 1/2 cups) gram (chickpea/garbanzo) flour
- a good pinch of sea salt
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander (cilantro)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 250 ml (1 cup) fizzy water
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) olive oil (not extra virgin) or coconut oil (ideally odourless - see notes*)
- 250 g (1 cup) full-fat plain yogurt (Greek is best, but natural or even coconut works here, too)
- pinch of sea salt
- sugar free hot chilli sauce (check ingredients - I use Encona Hot Sauce), to taste
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In a large bowl, mix the gram flour, salt and spices. Slowly whisk in the fizzy water to make a smooth batter. Mix the grated beetroot through the batter to coat. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or wok over high heat until it is smoking hot and a teaspoon of batter dropped into the pan sizzles as it hits (please cover your arms and be careful with the hot oil at this point!). Slowly drop in tablespoons of the beetroot batter into the hot oil and cook for about 3-4 minutes before turning with long tongs to cook on the other side for another 2-3 minutes until golden, crispy and cooked through. Prepare a big plate or tray by lining it with a few pieces of kitchen roll and place the cooked pakoras on it to drain the excess oil. Cook in batches until all of the batter is gone.
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For the dip, mix the ingredients together, adding chilli sauce to taste (if my kids are having it I add just enough to give flavour without heat, but for just me or my husband I go a bit hotter).
*using extra virgin coconut oil will give these pakoras a slight coconut flavour. I like to use odourless (lightly steamed) coconut oil to keep a neutral flavour - I buy this one.
